Health app researchers get $1.65M in funding

A project that includes researchers from the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and McGill University has received $1.65 million in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s CREATE program.

The project, led by University of Ottawa engineering professor Natalie Baddour, aims to provide engineering students with the professional and practical skills needed to compete in the growing market of healthcare applications.

The CREATE Biomedical Engineering Smartphone Training (BEST) program will prepare the next generation of engineers to design, develop and commercialize apps that would collect community and clinical health data, deliver healthcare information to practitioners, researchers and patients, monitor patients and all practitioners to provide health care through mobile telemedicine.

The evolution of healthcare apps is seen as a way to bridge the information gap between the home and the clinic, lower healthcare costs, allow doctors to monitor patients remotely and grant the patient more freedom.